Part of the writing assignment this week – is to learn about Order Words, or Transition Words.   The challenge is to  stop using starting words like This, That, or Then in sentences.  The Write Foundation, Sentences to Paragraphs gives a really great list of Order Words to choose from. – Transition Words – (Click Here for A Large List)

Today’s assignment – To create a paragraph using How To prompts.  How to make a Smore was one of the suggestions. Part of the curriculum is written as if to a co-op class, so when this language is used, Jon and I become students with Nathan. 

We started with Nate’s title – How to make Smores.  You can see that he later changed the title to be a sentence – Do you want to know how to make a Smore?   The boys took turns with the instructions, Nathan went through the Order Words List to start the sentences. After completing the story, we went through and tried to think of other order words, that might make the paragraph flow more smoothly.

In all transparency, we like to have bon fires at the beach, or at the lake – and I’m not opposed to a nice Mirror Pond Deschutes Brew.  You might notice that Jon, the snarky 11 year old, added this to the instructions.  Then, the boys were taking so long wording the lesson points, that I had to add another one in towards the end.  Hubby asked when he got home if I posted about the story – and I said No, it says I drank two beers before they got their stick out of the fire! I can’t post that!  He says – well, they’d know you are human and let your boys be creative writers.  Ok. So – That’s how you came to hear the story . . .

My encouragement – is to remember, when they are writing, especially creative, to let them be the writer. Let them flow. The goal of this lesson was to learn different ways to start a sentence – not to create something spectacularly genius to share on the blog. .

What sorts of relaxed fun are you having this week with writing and journaling?  Come one over for a Mirror Pond and we’ll chat.